lcstorc
Well-Known Member
Time to play nice everybody.
It is very difficult to understand nuances in text and often people take things the wrong way.
Now that we have that taken care of, I'll give my take on mandarins.
I have had several die on me even when kept in the "ideal" situations. Paul has an extremely unusual tank where he brings in live food from the wild and I am sure this has a lot to do with his success.
A sand sifting star is not really competition for the mandarin since they eat the microfauna in the substrate and are not really pod eaters. They also are difficult to keep in a newish tank, but in all honesty I have done it. Not sure how I got away with it, but I didn't know any better at the time.
The last mandarin I had (or will have) was for my 90g tank that had been left empty of fish for 9 months and the sand was literally moving with all of the pods as well as a cheato filled fuge and occasionally adding bottled pods. He would come up and eat the mysis shrimp I was target feeding to the bluespots that were added at that point. Then my husband added a yellow corris wrasse. Very quickly the mandarin started losing weight and soon passed on.
Bottom line, I would return the fish. If you do not or can not do that, then it is very important to add bottled pods to the tank frequently as well as be careful to not buy any wrasses or other fish that will be major pod competitors.
Yes the mods do have the ability to ban but we do not do this often and only in extreme cases. We are the Sanctuary and want all to feel welcome to ask and offer advice.
It is very difficult to understand nuances in text and often people take things the wrong way.
Now that we have that taken care of, I'll give my take on mandarins.
I have had several die on me even when kept in the "ideal" situations. Paul has an extremely unusual tank where he brings in live food from the wild and I am sure this has a lot to do with his success.
A sand sifting star is not really competition for the mandarin since they eat the microfauna in the substrate and are not really pod eaters. They also are difficult to keep in a newish tank, but in all honesty I have done it. Not sure how I got away with it, but I didn't know any better at the time.
The last mandarin I had (or will have) was for my 90g tank that had been left empty of fish for 9 months and the sand was literally moving with all of the pods as well as a cheato filled fuge and occasionally adding bottled pods. He would come up and eat the mysis shrimp I was target feeding to the bluespots that were added at that point. Then my husband added a yellow corris wrasse. Very quickly the mandarin started losing weight and soon passed on.
Bottom line, I would return the fish. If you do not or can not do that, then it is very important to add bottled pods to the tank frequently as well as be careful to not buy any wrasses or other fish that will be major pod competitors.
Yes the mods do have the ability to ban but we do not do this often and only in extreme cases. We are the Sanctuary and want all to feel welcome to ask and offer advice.